Next Hurricaneresistant Site To Rise At Crossroads In Doral

By Yudislaidy Fernandez
Procacci Development Corp., a developer with a niche for building hurricane-resistant buildings, is designing its next 85,000-square-foot building in Doral.

Crossroads at Dolphin Commerce Center has been successful at drawing tenants looking for a safe and secure home that offers business continuity following a storm or other natural disaster. Of its 430,000 square feet of existing space, about 4,000 are available for leasing.

The new building, north of Dolphin Mall and Northwest 117th Avenue, is to front the Florida Turnpike. Within Crossroads, the building is to rise next to the Keiser University building, the last built in the complex.

"We are excited about how the design is progressing," said Debra Kremblas, Procacci’s executive vice president. "We are looking to take this professional building to the next level."

The plan is to enhance the architectural features of the three-story building, she said, making it look more class A and adding more windows.

"We would like to secure a large enough tenant to kick off the construction," she said.

Crossroads is comprised of five office buildings that are capable of resisting hurricane winds of 150 to 185 miles per hour.

This extra layer of protection meets the needs of a number of tenants, including financial institutions and health care organizations that need to open immediately after a storm.

Among banks with office space at Crossroads are HSBC, Espírito Santo Bank and Banco Santander International.

These hurricane-resistant buildings meet the federal requirements for banks to house employees, maintain records and provide clients access to their accounts as part of maintaining a disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Other tenants at the commerce center are groups from the US General Services Administration and CarePlus Health Plans, a division of Humana, Ms. Kremblas listed.

Location and visibility are two main lures to tenants at Crossroads.

"Accessibility makes it easy for tenants to serve clients and for employees to get to work easier and faster than in more suburban and off-the-highway locations," she said.

Other tenants, like Keiser, are looking for visibility, she noted, which it got with a location that faces the Florida Turnpike.

Crossroads has 255,000 square feet of land remaining, enough to build up to three more hurricane-resistant buildings in the future.

The property is equipped with redundant generator backup, which has enough fuel on site to run the entire buildings for 20 days before it needs to refuel. Also, all the heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment is in a separate hurricane-resistant building that protects it from flying debris.

The idea behind Build Procacci Strong, Ms. Kremblas said, is that following a major disaster, "tenants know their work product, files and information will be waiting for them and safe."

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